Sibling Rivalry
by StarkContrastStartles
Summary: Ziva has a sister, come to avenge Ari's death, who captures Tony's heart. Can Ziva kill another rogue sibling or will she lose this fight?
1. The Visitor in the Night

The piercing ring of the doorbell shattered through Ziva's sleep ridden mind and she rolled over to try to drown it out. The thump of falling onto the floor shocked Ziva awake and she scrambled upright to answer it. She was still dressed in her cotton pyjamas when she peered through the spy hole. When she recognised the face on the other side her eyes widened and she slumped back down on the floor, reeling from the shock. The doorbell trilled again and Ziva tried to heave herself into a sitting position but her throbbing head and weak limbs made it very difficult. Her front room swam in front of her eyes and she blinked twice to determine whether she was still asleep or not. Her body tensed involuntarily when someone kicked the bottom of the door in frustration. Ziva twisted round to stare blankly at the wood now inches from her face. She vaguely contemplated answering it but her mind was skipping around in circles from the confusion caused by the lack of sleep and the surprising sight of her visitor. She heard the clattering of heels on wood fading as her visitor disappeared down the hallway. The last thing she heard before she flopped down onto the floor was the growl of a sports car revving on the street below.

Ziva awoke for the second time that morning to the faint sound of her alarm clock going off in her bedroom. She shifted around, her hand sliding across the floor as she tried to locate the elusive clock before realising with a jolt that she was not in her warm, comfortable bed but on the floor. She pushed herself up against the door, arching her aching back and yawning widely. She dragged herself into the bathroom and leant over the sink. The occurrences of the previous night where gradually revealing themselves and the more she remembered the closer her forehead got to the sink, until she was bent double and retching. She collapsed onto the tiles and groaned. She had been avoiding the ugly parts of her life since she joined NCIS and she was horrified by the daunting prospect of having to face them once more. She pulled herself up using the sink and cupped her hands to drink some water to revive her sagging spirits. She let out a pathetic whimper before resigning herself to get ready for work. Her sore body advised her not to tax it with her customary morning run and for once she listened. She hobbled down the stairs, shuddering as she realised that her visitor had taken the exact same path the night before, and started her red Mini. She barely registered the journey to work and didn't really even realise that she was there until she noticed Tony's terrified expression.

Tony had woken that morning earlier than usual and had decided to go into work straight away to catch up on the overdue paperwork that he and Ziva had agreed to do that day so that he could taunt her lounging back in his chair while she laboured away. He smiled as he left the elevator and heard the satisfying ping as the doors closed behind him. He had no idea why he was so cheery but he quite liked his current mood. One glance around the office showed him that it was empty and he considered bursting into impromptu song but wisely decided against it. He dropped his bag down onto the floor and flung himself into his chair, expecting to stop when he hit the seat but his expectations were not realised. He continued down until he hit the floor with a forceful thud. He gasped in shock and pain as his foot was now trapped under his considerable weight. He began to attempt to crawl off the wreckage of his chair but was aided by an extended, helpful hand. He grasped it and was hauled up, his foot released as quickly as it was trapped. He turned to thank the owner of the hand but fell over again immediately when he was confronted with a face. With such a quick glance the face was Ziva's but once he had recovered from the shock and taken another, prolonged look; he saw that there were subtle differences. This girl's jaw was more defined and her features more angular. Her skin was a couple of shades darker and her hair was unruly and thick. Her eyes were restless and fiery, unlike Ziva's relaxed, soft pupils. Her lips were parted almost erotically and the edges were curled into a sneer that became her face perfectly and the arms that protruded from the tight, short sleeves of the clingy black t-shirt were more muscular and tanned than Ziva's slender limbs. She was dressed differently to Ziva as well, her style more reminiscent of Ziva in Mossad rather than the new Ziva, more revealing and teasing. She had similar combat trousers to the ones Ziva wore on her first appearance at NCIS and builder's boots. Her t-shirt reached to just above the waistline of her trousers revealing a sliver of a brown, flat stomach. Her large brown eyes pierced through him and seemed to see inside his head and know what he was thinking. When he noticed this he immediately tried to rid himself of all the sexual thoughts that were prominent in his mind but to no avail as her obvious sex appeal was difficult to ignore. He appreciated her dominant presence all the more due to his time with Ziva. The girl impatiently held out her hand again and with a swift tug had him on his feet. She raised her eyebrows mockingly, daring him to fall down again, and he was filled with a sudden, overpowering urge to sit down on the floor, the instinct to obey the frightening figure in front of him. He bent his knees in preparation to hit the floor once more but she turned away from him to face the wall. The eye contact was broken and he straightened his legs, ashamed of the influence he had let her have over him. He opened his mouth to say something witty but stopped as she pulled her hand back, her slender fingers clasped around a knife. Her arm shot forward and the knife flew through the air, a silver blur against the garish orange of the walls. The tip of the knife pierced a hole in the wall cleanly and silently. Tony's mouth fell open into a gormless gape. The girl swung around to face him again and her lips parted more as she grinned at him. He smiled back.

'I took the screws out of your chair,' she stated melodically.

He nodded stupidly before regaining his senses and replying. 'Why?'

'Your walls are not strong enough. Too many knives in it and it cracked. I didn't want to demolish the place so I patched it up which required screws.' She paused before adding accusingly, 'you weren't here to object.'

He frowned. 'Why would I be? It's 0500.'

She smiled patronisingly. 'I have been waiting since 0400.'

It was only then that he realised that he didn't know who she was or why she was in their office. He had been too hypnotised by her to ask. 'Who are you?' he blurted out.

She smiled again, amused by his awkwardness. 'I believe you know my sister.'


	2. The Fight

The elevator doors pinged again and the two swung round, tearing their eyes off one another. Ziva emerged through the metal doors and walked directly to her desk without glancing up. She was not expecting anyone else to be there and was looking forward to a few hours of uninterrupted work to clear her mind. Tony only glanced at Ziva before his attention was drawn back to the girl who had so easily captivated his wandering mind and focused it firmly on her. She was staring intently at Ziva.

Ziva suddenly became aware of being watched at looked up. When she saw who is was she yelped and stood up, knocking her chair over to join Tony's on the floor. The girl smirked but her leer quickly transformed into a snarl, her eyes flashed dangerously and she leapt across the patch of carpet dividing the two. Her outstretched arm clutched onto the second member of the team that morning but this time it was not offering help, it was aggressive and inflicting pain. Ziva cried out as the strong fingers delved into her arm and wiggled in between her bones and muscles, pressing on nerves.

Ziva was now pushed up against the window with a hand around her neck, squeezing. Ziva allowed it to continue for only a moment before she pushed the girl away. The girl laughed mockingly and pounced on Ziva again. Ziva was now on the ground, writhing beneath the power of the triumphant girl's grip. Ziva lashed out with her feet but the girl pinned her down even more firmly and all Ziva could manage was wiggling and twisting under the weight. Tony was watching the catfight with amusement but the chuckle soon became a gasp when the attacking girl raised her fist and began to pound it repeatedly into Ziva's face.

Blood poured out of Ziva's nose and lip and her cheeks swelled up like a puffer fish. Ziva kicked her assailant again and this time she knocked her off. Ziva rolled over to make the most of her fleeting advantage and pressed all her weight down on her sister. Her sister freed her elbow and used it to bash the side of Ziva's head before throwing Ziva off with the strength of her muscular legs. Ziva landed on the floor a few metres away but had no time to catch her breath as her sister was clutching her shoulders and pulling her off the floor.

Ziva relaxed momentarily, thinking her sister was stopping the assault, but soon a fresh bout of punches and kicks were raining down on her. Tony was hesitant in his intervention for the newcomer had obviously been trained well for she was inflicting some serious damage on his colleague. Ziva dodged out the way but her sister second guessed her every time and Ziva never escaped the pound of fists for more than a second. In desperation, Ziva tried to duck between the girl's flying leg and run away but the girl bent over backwards into an inhuman contortion and trapped Ziva beneath. The girl flipped over backwards and resumed her onslaught of strikes.

Ziva tried to put up some resistance but her attempts were futile against the furious attack so she gave up and made do with shielding her face as best she could. After numerous punches to the groin, abdomen and face, Ziva realised that there were words accompanying the battering. Making out the words was difficult due to the storm of strikes but Ziva managed to block out some of the pain and could distinct some words from the battering of fists against bone. Ziva's shoulders slumped as she made sense of the mutterings and tears stung her swollen eyes.

The elevator doors pinged again and Gibbs appeared. When he saw Ziva being attacked by an unknown intruder and Tony watching the assault like a spectator at a football match, he was outraged. He hurled himself at the attacker and tried to drag her away from Ziva. However, he was instantly knocked to the ground by her elbow and he lay there, dazed. This unprecedented attack on his prized boss jerked Tony into action and he tried to catch a hold on the girl's flailing limbs. He failed miserably at this task but slowly the strikes lessened in volume until the girl finally turned completely away and stared out the window, seemingly unaffected by her passionate rage. Ziva collapsed onto the floor, her face bleeding profusely and her bruised fingers clawing at the carpet to try to weaken the overwhelming pain.

Tony stared at her with horrified eyes before turning to confront her sister. She was still gazing out the window to the busy street below. Feeling his stony glare, she spun around. Two large round saucers fixed themselves on him and he was drawn in. His eyes took in her perfect, toned form and her glossy, thick mane of hair. A smile presented itself on her exotic face. He was mesmerised and any thoughts he had had of blaming her for the pulped mess of Ziva and his winded boss exited the limited capacity of his head. He had more wits than many initially thought but when he became irrevocably enchanted and horny, his mind got fixated on one sexual image on refused to let go. A movie was playing out in his head, more porno than Hitchcock, completely inappropriate for the office, especially when the star was the crazy girl who had beaten his partner and boss into bloody masses lying prostrate on the stained carpet.

Gibbs heaved himself off the floor and tried to focus his eyes to stop the world spinning. When he could see clearly he directed vision towards his only present, unmashed up agent and once he saw the gawping Tony he immediately regained his boss mode and smacked the back of Tony's head. The strike jerked Tony's imagination out of the bedroom but he still made no attempt to disguise his fantasy. The girl now had a pleased smirk on her face and looked satisfied. She had lost the haunted expression and her animated face had lost its aggression and was dancing playfully.

Ziva extricated herself from the sticky pool of blood on the floor and stood up on shaky legs. Her eyebrows closed into a painful frown when she saw the sparks between her attacker and her supposed partner and friend.

'Tony,' she croaked. Tony's dragged his eyes off her sister and turned expectantly to her. When he saw the damage that his new fascination had done to his long term friend, he felt terribly guilty. He vacated his spot by the window with the prime view of the newer Israeli beauty and crossed over to Ziva's side.

'Are you okay?' he asked softly. She nodded slowly after some consideration and, using his shoulder to support her frail weight, she moved towards her previous assailant.

'Erykah,' she whispered throatily. 'I thought you were dead.' Erykah shrugged, amused by the anguish in her sister's voice.

'Never believe what you hear,' she advised with a dry chortle.

Ziva stared at her blankly. 'Why?' she asked finally. 'Why are you here?' Her voice cracked towards the end and tears streamed down her bloody cheeks.

Her sister's eyes flashed again, just as they had done before the beating and Ziva took a nervous step back into Tony's safe body.

'I should be asking you that,' Erykah growled. Ziva frowned, puzzled. Erykah's hand slipped to her back and drew a gun from her belt. She pointed it at Ziva's head and waited. Ziva's eyes widened in acknowledgement. She fully understood why she had been beaten up and she even partially agreed with the motive. Erykah was her sister which meant that she was Ari's half-sister too.


	3. Ziva killed Ari

Tony left Ziva and her sister standing by the window, next to the stained patch on the carpet, staring intensely at each other. He slumped down on the bottom step of the stairs leading to Vance's office and thought about his actions, or inactions as would be more appropriate. Something about the girl had hypnotised him and prevented him from saving Ziva from what could have been her last fight. He was Ziva's friend and he would never normally have stood there and watched but something in her eyes had told him not to intervene. The girl had gone crazy and she could easily have killed Ziva but from just the quick meeting they had before the beat down had told him that she would not have killed her sister. He felt immensely guilty for not stopping the attack but something had told him not to, and, since she hadn't killed Ziva, he was technically right in his reaction.

He thought about the last words that Erykah had spoken to Ziva before he left them alone out of courtesy and shame. _'You killed Ari,' _she had hissed. Tony had ignored the words while he dealt with his guilt but now they forced themselves into the forefront of his mind. Ziva killed Ari. He wondered how he could not have guessed. He wasn't sure how this made him feel. Ari killed Kate. Ziva killed Ari. But Ziva was Ari's brother. How much did NCIS mean to her if she would kill her own brother to save Gibbs? He felt even more ashamed. However, he argued, the Ziva that had killed Ari had been Mossad Ziva, the emotionally stunted Ziva, not NCIS Ziva, the Ziva that he cared about so much. The heartless Ziva would not have been saving Gibbs, she would not have cared about his life. So why had she killed him? The questions raged through his throbbing head like thunder. He lifted himself off the step and leaned over to watch and eavesdrop on the sisters.

Standing side by side, the similarities were enhanced. They both had olive coloured, smooth skin, skimming over toned, defined muscles which rippled when they moved. They both stood immovably, stubbornly, each mirroring the other's position. Their differences also became more noticeable. Erykah was tensed, ready to fight her way out of the situation, whereas Ziva was hunched up in fear. Ziva had controlled her wild, curly hair and scraped it back into a long, straight, sophisticated ponytail. Erykah let her curly, thick hair roam loose down her back and it swung with her every movement in a more entrancing way than Ziva's swishing, dignified tail. Ziva's eyes were less fiery, more compassionate. He suddenly remembered the conversation they had had on the day that Gibbs... no, that Ziva had killed Ari. She had told him about her sister Tali's compassion but she had never mentioned another sister. She had never mentioned another sister. He realised with a sharp pain in his stomach that Ziva would never stop keeping secrets from him.

Ziva had adopted an offensive position, visibly scared but not giving in to her sister but eventually she relaxed and leant forward conspiratorially.

'Erykah,' she implored. 'Please.'

Erykah twitched but did not allow any emotion to be displayed on her face.

'Please, Erykah. I missed you.'

Erykah moved her furious gaze from Ziva and stared past her to the far wall.

'I'm sorry,' Ziva murmured finally before breaking down and allowing the tears to stream down her face.

Erykah returned her eyes to her sister sobbing on the floor. Her guard dropped and she crouched down nest to her sister. Her guard immediately reinstated itself and she pulled away.

'Why?' she asked simply, her tone conveying no discernable emotion.

Ziva turned her glistening eyes upwards.

'Why?' Erykah repeated.

'You know why,' Ziva answered hoarsely.

Erykah straightened up, clenched her fists and began an aggressive rant. 'I can guess why in Mossad's opinion, I guess why in father's opinion, I know why in my opinion and I think I guess why in your opinion but nobody ever told me directly why,' she paused for breath and hesitated before resuming her tirade. 'I want to hear it from your own lips.' Her eyes became doleful and pleading and Ziva was instantly moved by the powerful emotions shining through in all their glory. She had a niggling feeling that the outpouring of feeling was just for show and was acting but she was affected nevertheless.

'He was a rogue agent. He was a murderer. He killed in cold blood,' she whimpered. For the first time since she had pulled the trigger in the doorway of Gibbs's basement, the excuses sounded lame and unreasonable. She had never questioned her judgement that day before but she could feel the disapproval radiating from her only surviving sibling. Erykah did reply straight away but seemed to mull this explanation over. Ziva realised that she had no clue what her sister did now. They hadn't spoken for years. She could be a rogue agent or terrorist for all she knew. Ziva studied her sister and saw Ari in her. She wondered whether she would be able to shoot another rogue sibling if it became necessary.

Erykah could see the thoughts sprinting through Ziva's mind and cut them off. 'I am,' she stated.

Ziva frowned. 'What?' she enquired.

'I am the same as Ari.' She paused. 'No', she corrected herself. 'I don't pretend. I am not a rogue agent. I am a freelance assassin.' The calm manner in which she spoke was similar to the way someone might tell you that they were a freelance journalist not a contract killer.

Ziva was unsure how to process this new information so she nodded wordlessly.

'Are you going to shoot me too?' Erykah taunted. 'End it all, like you did to Ari.' She stopped and sighed sadly.

Ziva took the window of grief to regain control of the situation. 'Ari was a traitor.'

Erykah lowered her eyes thoughtfully. 'It was always about king and country with you, loyalties.' She raised her eyes and stared defiantly into Ziva's. 'Hypocrite,' she accused. 'You betray Mossad and your family and yet you talk of loyalty.' She spat in disgust. 'You come to America, America,' she repeated and spat again. 'America, and clean yourself up, wash the blood off your hands. But, Ziva, blood stains. You can never rid yourself of the past and you can never undo what is done.' Her voice was mocking now and she was advancing menacingly on Ziva. 'You can never rid yourself of me.'

'You're like a bad smell,' Ziva retorted, trying not to be affected by the seething words of her sister.

Erykah laughed. 'You cannot kill smells.' She fingered a glinting object at her waist that Ziva recognised as a sharpened knife.

Ziva reached for her gun but when she looked up Erykah had disappeared. Ziva knew she should feel relieved but she felt nothing, just the emptiness that Gibbs had said had died in Somalia. Gibbs had lied.


	4. Childhood Memories

Gibbs returned in the elevator with coffee and arrived seconds after Erykah disappeared. Ziva stared at him.

'Did you pass Erykah?' she asked.

Gibbs shook his head. Ziva frowned. She turned to Tony who shrugged. Ziva looked around her. If neither Tony nor Gibbs had passed her, Erykah must still be in the building. She called out to her sister but got no reply. She turned to the window and glanced towards the ground with the little dolls toddling around on the distant pavement below. She started. Erykah could be very distinct when she wanted to be and blend into the crowd when she didn't. Obviously she wanted Ziva to notice her since Ziva's eyes were immediately drawn to her sister far beneath her. Somehow, Erykah had managed to escape the building without going down the stairs or by the elevator. A smile crept to Ziva's scarlet face. Her sister was just as she remembered.

She felt a chill creep over her neck and she spun round to find Gibbs watching her intently. She raised her eyebrows questioningly. He cocked his head and opened his mouth to speak when his desk phone rang. He strode across to it and answered it with a curt, 'Gibbs.' After a pause he continued. 'Ziva will be right down.' He replaced the phone on its cradle and turned to Ziva. 'Abby had something to show us. I thought that you could handle it by yourself.' Ziva narrowed her eyes suspiciously, trying to figure out his ulterior motive for sending her to see Abby but complied with his order.

She had forgotten about her bloody, swollen face and was startled by Abby's cry of alarm when she passed through the open door into Abby's lab.

'What is it, Abby?' she asked.

Abby pointed dramatically to her face and Ziva sighed as she realised that there was no real issue.

'It looks worse than it is, Abby.'

'Who did it to you?' Abby gasped, still recovering from the shock of Ziva's bruises.

'My sister,' Ziva said automatically, not realising how callous she sounded.

'I thought your sister was dead?' Abby asked curiously.

'She is.' Abby frowned trying to make sense of Ziva's confusing explanation. 'I have another sister.'

Abby glared at her. 'And when were you going to tell us this?' she demanded.

Ziva squirmed. 'She isn't someone that comes up easily in conversation.'

Abby face softened as she recognised Ziva's discomfort. 'And she did this to you?' she inquired delicately.

'Abby, don't fuss. It looks worse than it is, honestly. She really knows how to mess you up to look terribly injured without doing any serious damage. It'll heal in no time.' Ziva's voice was calm and irritated, as if she resented Abby's concern.

'But, Ziva,' Abby protested. 'Why was your sister beating you up?'

Ziva's eyes shifted around the room. 'Ari,' she whispered eventually.

'Ari?'

'He was her brother, too,' Ziva reminded her.

'That does not give her a right to,' Abby gestured towards her friend, 'do this to you.'

'Yes it does, Abby,' Ziva corrected her. 'For I killed Ari, not Gibbs.'

Abby's face melted with sympathy and she ran towards Ziva and threw her arms around her. 'Ziva,' she mumbled into her hair. 'I'm so sorry.'

Ziva stood there stiffly, allowing Abby to try to comfort her, but seeing her sister again had made Ziva feel odd about the changes that she had made to herself since leaving Mossad. Usually she hugged Abby back but it didn't feel appropriate. Abby noticed her unwillingness and pulled away.

Ziva gave her a small smile and sat down. She looked at Abby's furious face; her fury directed at Ziva's last remaining sibling and bit her lip.

_Flashback to Ziva's childhood_

Ziva stood on the chair, peering out the window. The window was waist height for her father but she needed the extra lift to be able to stare out of it, eagerly anticipating her sister's arrival. She hadn't ever seen her sister before; she had always been with her mother when her sister had visited her father previously. This time, Ziva had pleaded for weeks with Rivka to allow her to go to see her father and sister in England.

Her sister was a year younger than her, and two years older than Tali. Tali was standing beside Ziva, on another chair, and was just as excited as Ziva. Ziva put an arm around her younger sister and gave her small hug.

The trio only waited a short time before their excitement climaxed as a black car swept into the driveway. Ziva leapt off her chair and rushed down the stairs and out the door to greet her sister. By the time she reached the car, her sister was already helping the driver to heave trunks out of the car. They were big, black trunks and Ziva shrank away from them. She had seen similar trunks before and they always contained guns. She waited shyly at a safe distance from the car until all the trunks had been unloaded and the girl took out a battered khaki rucksack. She swung it over her shoulder and ran towards Ziva. She stopped as Ziva flung her arms out to envelope her in a hug. Tentatively she stepped forward and allowed Ziva to wrap her arms around her. A crooked smile manifested itself on her impish face and she wrestled Ziva to the ground. Ziva gave a small shriek as she hit the ground. At the protestation, the girl rolled off Ziva and frowned. Ziva stood up and brushed the dust off her dress. Rivka had insisted on only packing dresses and skirts for the trip and Ziva had strict instructions not to rip them. Eli and Tali joined the two sisters and Eli gave a deep laugh at the sight of his younger daughter on the ground and Ziva leaning away from her, tidying her appearance.

'Ziva, this is Erykah, your sister,' he introduced. 'Erykah, this is Ziva and Tali. They don't fight constantly so you'll have to be gentle.' He held his large hand out to help Erykah up but Erykah ignored it and hopped onto her feet lightly. She grinned at Eli and Tali, who was hiding behind her father's leg. Ziva watched the boisterous girl closely as they went upstairs to the room they would be sharing. Erykah led the way, bounding up the stairs with surprising vigour; Ziva followed, running to keep up; and Tali trailed behind wailing mournfully for Ziva to 'wait up.'

Erykah tipped the limited contents of her backpack onto her bed in a messy heap and leant dangerously far out of the now open window. Ziva joined her, though she leant out less far, and bombarded her sister with questions. Erykah scrutinised Ziva before she answered every question with the secretive short reply that seemed to stem from a clear mistrust of her new sister. Ziva was persistent enough but Erykah was stubborn and eventually Ziva gave up her information witch hunt.

After she had blocked the flow of questions, Erykah leant out even further and contorted herself into curious positions to get the best view of her surroundings. While Erykah was engrossed in her scope of the landscape, Ziva studied her face. She had a curly, brown mop of unruly tangles on her head and a defined jaw underneath striking features on her face. Her eyes were deep brown and Ziva felt as if she could get lost inside the maze of swirls and shades. Her nose was curved and the skin clung tightly to the shapely bone. Her lips were dark red and subtly parted in an amused smirk. Her body was slender and athletic, her muscles already noticeable beneath her glowing chestnut skin. Ziva was captivated by her appearance and the agility in which she dangled herself out of the window, oblivious to the danger of the potential fall.

Erykah quickly got a satisfactory view and turned to Ziva with a mischievous giggle. She grabbed Ziva's hand and pulled her down the stairs. She dropped it when they reached the bottom of the driveway and raised her eyebrows, daring Ziva to turn back. Ziva returned the gaze and Erykah nodded, pleased by the adventurousness of her new playmate. Erykah jumped lightly over the fence and darted into the woods beyond. After only a seconds hesitation Ziva followed. Rivka knew of Ziva's love of the woods at the bottom of Eli's English country house's garden and had banned her from going into it, making Ziva recite the perils of entering the woods alone before she allowed her to visit Eli there. Ziva was almost consumed by the darkness of the trees when she heard a plaintive whimper from the fence. Tali was standing there, barely visible through the cracks in the wood, begging Ziva to come back. Ziva shouted to reassure Tali and advise her to return to the house before spinning round and following Erykah into the depths of the wood.

Erykah and Ziva disappeared into the woods regularly during their stay. Tali would follow them down every time but never ventured past the confines of the fence. Ziva never told her sister of the games they would play in the woods, she had never told anyone. Ziva had been afraid at the time to even let Eli know but now she wondered if Eli had suggested to Erykah to teach his other daughter how to kill. At first Erykah threw stones at birds, shot squirrels with arrows but after a week, she decided to teach Ziva how to shoot a gun. They crept into Eli's study one night and stole an old revolver from the back of the cupboard. The next day, before breakfast, Erykah took Ziva to the woods and showed her how to use it. By the afternoon, Ziva had shot two stray dogs and three mice.

The visit was only short for Ziva and Tali, their mother had only granted them two weeks off school to meet their sister, and Ziva wondered if she would ever see her sister again. She had become extremely attached to Erykah and hoped that they would not be separated for too long because she was scared that Erykah would forget about her after a while.

The day before their departure, Ziva asked the question that had been burning since Erykah had revealed her aggressive tendencies and skills with weapons.

'Erykah?' she began. Erykah looked up from the knife she was sharpening on a rock. 'Where did you learn all this stuff?'

Ziva was expecting a guarded answer that revealed nothing but her question was answered fully.

'Father sent me away to Russia with his friends. They train me every day after school,' she told Ziva flatly. 'They taught me to injure, hide, spy and kill without anyone noticing. They work for father at Mossad.'

Ziva nodded. She felt hurt by this admission. Her father had thought Erykah was worthy of Mossad training but not her. She almost left Erykah and stormed to the house to confront her father but she didn't want to waste her final day with Erykah.

After Ziva and Tali had returned to Israel, to their protective mother, Rivka, they argued often about Erykah. Ziva remained in awe of their half-sister, whereas Tali was disapproving. It was four years before they saw Erykah again and Tali had matured excessively. She was ten and had proved herself to be both kind and clever. Ziva had shown an interest in Mossad after her experience with Erykah's Mossad training and, while Rivka despaired of her rebellious daughter, Eli rejoiced in having another dutiful daughter to follow in his footsteps.

The second time that the sisters met Erykah was to be more eventful than the last.


	5. Consequences

**This is awful but I felt the need to round if off however badly.**

Ziva sat behind her desk, tears welling up behind tightly shut eyelids.

Tony watched her with a mixture of sympathy and longing. Now that Erykah had gone, he was seeing Ziva with a different expectation and was seeing a side of her which had not been revealed before. She had resigned herself to her fate while she was being attacked by her sister and accepted the punishment. Ziva had never discussed Ari with them and it was only now that Tony realised what had been taken away from her.

Ziva had never considered Erykah's feelings when she had pulled the trigger. To her it had been only her and Ari who would be affected and only her who would continue to feel the pain. Erykah had always seemed so distant and perfect that Ziva had never contemplated the possibility that she could feel pain and know anguish. Erykah was to Ziva what Ziva appeared to others as: cold and emotionless, proficient and indestructible. Never had it occurred to Ziva to connect the two. Others assumed Ziva felt nothing and Ziva had assumed that Erykah was filled by a colourless void. If Erykah could reveal her inner weakness and not be viewed as lesser for it, perhaps she should try it too. Ziva nodded to herself, her mind calmer for the discovery of the potential for openness and honesty.

Tony had been enamoured with Erykah's graceful deadly charm but, now she had gone and Ziva was the one remaining, he realised that Erykah was just a hyperbolical version if Ziva. Ziva was subtler and had more precision and elegance to her methods. Tony gulped as the truth fell upon him like ten tons of bricks. Ziva was the one he was wanted and needed more than anything else.


End file.
